Grandpa Garnier used to say, Love is like a bucking bronco. It takes guts and determination to hang on, but it's worth the ride. If only Grandpa was around now to help Tyson Garnier out of this mess. The famous pro football player is suddenly saddled with a very public scandal—and an illegitimate child. Tyson needs a good nanny now if he's going to salvage his career. And plain, no-nonsense Dakota Brown is the ideal candidate. Dakota doesn't care for football—or for a man who doesn't seem to want his own son. But she needs this job, and that precious little baby needs her. Dakota isn't Tyson's kind of woman. But the more he sees of her—and the more he sees of his son—the harder he wants to hang on.

"It's 1914 at the Potter home in the rural community of Crossroads, which serves as family residence, doctor's office, boarding house, and telephone exchange. For Grandpa, a crusty, retired hellfire-and-brimstone minister; his daughter Miss Eva, widow of a country doctor (and practicing medicine without a license); Eva's imaginative and restless teenage daughter Nell; handyman Lomax; and schoolteacher/switchboard operator Lavinia, life is pretty humdrum-that is, until a train derails just outside of town. News comes fast and furiously through the telephone exchange. Neighbors call to report buffaloes in their cornfields, African chieftains stalking through their yards, and cowboys and Indians roaming the neighborhood. And then comes word that the train was carrying Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. As the household works itself into a tizzy, a refugee from the wreck shows up-assumed at first to be Buffalo Bill himself. Instead, he turns out to be a cowboy/musician with the unlikely name of Fargo Montana, who dresses in costume for his role as Buffalo Bill's stand-in. The folks in the Potter home are disappointed that their guest isn't the celebrity they thought, but they soon find that Fargo's presence forces them to confront their long-held dreams-Nell to live in the city, Eva to go to medical school, Grandpa to become a Wild West cowboy, Lavinia to find the man of her dreams, and Lomax to return to his roots in show business. Fargo has a dream, too-to start a jazz band. Fargo and Lavinia fall in love in a song, and as the curtain falls, everyone is setting out on bold new ventures."--Publisher's website.

AUTHOR UP CLOSE. I have been a contractor most of my adult life. This is actually a second career for me. Hopefully you have enjoyed many of my lyrics in this book. Some words I spelled wrong on purpose, I guess you know that by now. I did so the end of the word would have the effect I wanted; many lyricists do that. If by chance there are others, then shame on me and my spell check. Grammar never was my best subject. I’m married with six children and nine grandchildren. Working in any form has been my many hobbies. This is my first edition of Your Own Song to Sing. I will be doing additional editions, probably one a year for the next four or five years. Without writing any new material, I have enough to fill that many books, and yes, I’m still writing. Again I surely hope to see some of you that use my lyrics, if not on center stage when the awards come around. Meanwhile All Stay Well.—SAVERIO

Originally published as Coulda Been A Cowboy, this refreshing story shows that even the bumpiest roads are worth traveling for the right person. Grandpa Garnier used to say, Love is like a bucking bronco. It takes guts and determination to hang on, but it’s worth the ride. If only Grandpa was around now to help Tyson Garnier out of this mess. The famous pro football player is suddenly saddled with a very public scandal—and an illegitimate child. Tyson needs a good nanny now if he’s going to salvage his career. And plain, no-nonsense Dakota Brown is the ideal candidate. Dakota doesn’t care for football—or for a man who doesn’t seem to want his own son. But she needs this job, and that precious little baby needs her. Dakota isn’t Tyson’s kind of woman. But the more he sees of her—and the more he sees of his son—the harder he wants to hang on. Originally published in 2007 under the title Coulda Been A Cowboy

"Tomlinson meshes local politics, college basketball, and the South in this wonderfully gritty crime novel you just can’t put down." --Dave White, author of An Empty Hell Summer, 1994. Dean Goodnight, the first Choctaw Indian employed by the Oklahoma County public defender's office, pulls a new case--the brutal murder of a once-promising basketball star. The only witness is Caleb, the five-year-old son of the prime suspect, Billy. Investigating the murder, Dean draws four strangers into Billy's orbit, each of whom becomes deeply invested in the suspect’s fate--and in Caleb's. There's Aura Jefferson, the victim's sister, a nurse struggling with the loss of her brother; Aura's patient Cecil Porter, a paraplegic whose own dreams of playing pro basketball were shattered fifty years ago; Cecil's brother, the entrepreneur and political manipulator "Big" Ben Porter; and Ben's wife, Becca, who discovers a link between the young Caleb and her own traumatic past. As Billy's trial approaches, these five are forced to confront their deepest disappointments, hopes, and fears. And when tragedy strikes again, their lives are forever entwined. "The Midnight Man is a novel about family in the modern world and the difficulties of finding true understanding in even the closest relationships. Woven around and through a tragic death penalty case, the characters come alive on each page. We see vividly, richly, the human demands on those caught up in America's system of capital punishment. This novel gives a rich portrait of the forces driving wedges between people on different sides of the death penalty debate and, perhaps more importantly, the forces that unite them. This is a sad but wonderful book." --Austin Sarat, author of When the State Kills "With its swiftly moving plot and compelling cast of characters, The Midnight Man is a lively portrait of America bearing down on the end of the last century: divided by race, united by the sense that we're all in this together, set to be transformed by unimaginable violence. David Eric Tomlinson has the novelist's finely tuned ear for language, the journalist's grasp of unfolding history, and the native son's unerring sense of place. His is an important new voice." --Rilla Askew, author The Mercy Seat and Strange Business

The second gripping, powerful novel by the author of Once Were Warriors. Boys’ homes, borstal, jail, stealing, then jail again – and again. That’s been life for Jube and Sonny. One Pakeha, the other Maori, only vaguely aware of life beyond pubs and their hopeless cronies . . . Reviewers found it compulsive and unforgettable, one saying: 'Brutal, foul-mouthed, violent, despairing and real . . . it can't be ignored'. In this novel Alan Duff confirms his skills as a gripping story-teller and a masterful creator of characters and situations. As one reviewer noted, it is 'original and important'.

Nothing and beingness is an exploration of a human year of life in poetry. It may apply to you or/and someone you know.